Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Accelerated molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of recent Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) experiments on oxidized silicon surfaces demonstrate a nontrivial dependence of frictional force on sliding velocity as well as temperature. By implementing hyper dynamics (HD) via the bond-boost method these simulations achieve sliding velocities in the range of real experimental values. Moreover, an analysis of the effects of temperature and sliding velocity on friction provide evidence for a systematic deviation from the modified Tomlinson model. We hypothesize regarding the origin of these deviations, and use the simulations to analyze the atomic processes that accompany sliding.